Band:	24-7 Spyz
Album:	Face The Day
Style:	Alternative metal, Crossover thrash metal
Release date:	July 10, 2006
A review by:	jupitreas

01. Unknown Wellknown
02. Face The Day
03. Waiting For The Sun
04. Soul Sucker
05. Ride To Nowhere
06. Faithless
07. The Saturday Song
08. Angel
09. Blues For Dimebag
10. Running
11. Anything For You
12. Plastique
13. Bad Reputation [Thin Lizzy cover]
14. Stand! [Sly And The Family Stone cover]

Although sadly now largely forgotten, the 24-7 Spyz were actually quite an important band back in the late 80s and early 90s alternative metal scene. Together with Bad Brains, Living Colour and Fishbone they pioneered mixing metal with jazz, R&B, soul, hip-hop and funk and we all know how influential this particular hybrid proved to be on the metal world. Still, while all of their peers couldn't really be called de-facto metal bands due to their focus on non-metal elements (Living Coulour was essentially hard-rock, Bad Brains were hardcore punk, Fishbone was more funk than anything else), the 24-7 Spyz were always the heaviest and most aggressive of the bunch, using numerous thrash metal and NYHC elements in their music. The band was on a hiatus for the last decade or so but now finally they decided to reemerge and make some noise by releasing Face The Day, their latest LP.

Compared to the band's previous albums, Face The Day is quite a lot less aggressive and there is a larger ratio of R&B, reggae and soul here than ever before. Not that this is a bad thing. As a result of this focus, the album sounds very fluid and comfortable, as if it was the recording of a jam session. The musicians are all extremely proficient and they are obviously having great fun playing together, whether they are laying down the heavy grooves and hardcore gang-shouts in the title track or performing the romantic soul ballad "The Saturday Song". As a matter of fact, I think more bands should explore the areas of the latter song - the vocal chord progressions are unusual and original for a metal song and the heavy guitars contribute the sort of dynamics that ordinary soul is rarely able to achieve.

Unfortunately, the comfortable and playful vibe of this record is also its biggest problem. It sounds more like a collection of random songs and outtakes than an album that makes sense as a whole. Previous 24-7 Spyz albums were much better in this respect so I count this as a flaw. Still, despite this it is very nice to hear these guys making music again since they tackle areas too often ignored by the metal mainstream.